New Trades from the Bargain Shelf at Forbidden Planet

I like visiting Forbidden Planet in Birmingham as at least that store has items on sale unlike Forbidden Planet Coventry or Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham.

This time I picked Vols 6,7 & 8 of Superman Chronicles for £2.99 each (but with a buy 2 get 3rd free) and a nice Darwyn Cooke Spirit trade.

I wouldn't have normally gone for Golden Age Superman but this was an exceptional offer because for £6 I got reprints of Action 37 - 47, Superman 10 - 15 and World's Finest 2 - 4. Interesting from a comics history point of view and I'm really happy with them. I think these were on sale because DC are now releasing Golden Age Superman with a new trade dress.

More hardcovers and trade paperback collections

It's been a busy time with purchases recently although fortunately I've not spent too much as all the books were bargains. These three purchases were via the Book Depository and were approx 1/3 less than Amazon prices even accounting for P&P.

Quite a range of titles here from Bronze Age Superman, to Batman from 2000s and very recent Marvel series. In fact, I'll read the Vision Vol 2 very soon as Vol 1 was so good.

More Silver Age DC Omnibus editions

I'm still keen on the DC omnibus editions and a couple have arrived this week.

The JLA is Vol 2 (I've not got Vol 1 yet as I've not seen it for a good price) and it's massive. It's 1056 pages and collects #31-#76 and Mystery In Space #75

World's Finest Vol 1. is a bit thinner at only 626 pages and collects Superman #75 and World's Finest #71- #116. It was only recently that I realised that this comic was the Superman-Batman team-up book. They first teamed-up in Superman #75 and that was so well received that DC decided to change the lead story in WF to be Superman and Batman each issue.

I'm loving finding out about all this early DC history.

Catching-up on what I've read

It's been a while since I blogged about what I've read and that's because for the most part I've been reading this monster-sized Omnibus. It's a 1200+ pages!

After buying a few Omnibus editions recently I thought I ought to read some of my older ones and I'd had this one on my shelf since March 2014

For the most part I enjoyed it and certainly in the first 2/3 of the book the rotating team and their refreshing agenda for fame and fortune made for interesting reading. Perhaps I got a little jaded towards the end and that's even with fitting in the following two collections to give me a little rest.

These were recent acquisitions and were great.

Although some of stories in the Bronze-Age Superman collection were  a bit silly, I think that is part of the charm of that period of DC. It's also only something I've recently begun to appreciate.

One thing I really liked about this edition was the reproduction. The colouring style meant you still felt like you were reading a 1970's comic but it was clear and neat. Difficult to describe but it felt just right.

The Vision story was very modern and very well done. I'll have to get part 2 very soon.

A Bargain at Forbidden Planet

The list price was £24.99 in the shop and Amazon has it on sale for £34.99 but the sale price was £6.99. This HC vol contains some early bronze-age Superman which is something I haven't got and as I'm interested in early DC at the moment I snapped this up as it will be ages before any Omnibus is released.

This collection featuring SUPERMAN #233-238 and #240-242 will give me an opportunity to see what this era is like. Covers by Neil Adams and stories by Denny O'Neil and Curt Swan. Should be interesting.

Superman, Batman and She-Hulk all by John Byrne

I've finished these two graphic novels/trades/ comics etc. this week.

John Byrne was one of the first comic creators I began to take notice of and particularly look out for his stuff. I read my first DC comic as a result of him moving to DC to do Superman!

I enjoyed both of these. Perhaps not the She-Hulk quite as much as I expected but I had been waiting years to read it so it maybe had too much to live-up to. The Elseworlds Superman/Batman (written 1999) was fun.

Superman Kryptonite by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale

I breezed through this very quickly as it was so good and an easy read. Lovely pictures by Tim Sale as ususal.

New Purchases Galore

 I am having to blog more regularly to keep up with my new purchases recently. My goal of buying less than I am reading is well beyond reach at the present time. There are a few factors to blame for this. My trips to London for one and alos CBRs's greatest stories of all time series.

I really value the sites where I find out about cool comics from the past I missed and these features listing stories are a real treat. Of course, as soon as I read about stuff I investigate the net to see if I can get it! This trade of "Generations" from 1999 was the only copy I could find. It was listed as in "good nick" on ebay and I can't disagree. Definitely well read but complete. This particular story was highly placed in both the best Elseworlds stories and the best Superman stories. And it's by John Byrne who was a favourite of mine for a long time.

I did say I was going to look out for more Iron Man Masterworks. Just like the Superman/Batman book above, this hardback edition is quite rare and getting expensive. That's why I plonked down £30 for this copy from Amazon Market place. I will still try and get Vol 5 very soon too.

I haven't forgotten by actual comic collection either despite the number of trades and hardcovers I have bought recently. But there are not that many on my wants list and those that are are hard to get at a good price. These two issues of Team-Up were an exception priced at 99p and £1.04 respectively.

This isn't the end of the spending spree..more stuff on the way. Oh my giddy aunt!

Crazy time in London Comic Shops

 I had another business trip to London a couple of days ago and I got to visit both Forbidden Planet and Mega City Comics whilst I was there. I picked up 4 trades/ collections all for cheaper than I could have got them on Amazon.

The sale at FP again yielden results with this SHIELD hardcover "Agents of Tomorrow" by Hickman.

 Flex Mentallo always gets rave reviews on CBR but they all seem to worship Grant Morrison. What sold this for me was Frank Quitely's art which is amazing. This deluxe edition is very hard to find so I snapped it up when I saw it in Mega City.

 Recent posts have included stuff by Darwyn Cooke and although he didn't draw this story Tim Sale is a more than adequate substitute. On sale at less than a tenner? Yes please!

I also picked up Vol 4 of Dark Horse's reprints of the original Star Wars comics by Marvel. This is crazy stuff but worth it for £10 and having resisted first time round at FP I went for it this time. If they still have Vol 5 in the sale next time I am there then I'll bring that home too.

John Byrne's Man of Steel

This must be the first DC comic I ever bought. John Byrne had become one of my favourite creators so when he left the FF and Marvel so do this Superman revamp in 1986 I decided to bite the bullet and give DC a try.

I'm pleased I did. I loved this mini-series and continued buying DC comics for years afterwards. This was a golden time for DC with their various re-launches. Miller on Batman, Perez on Wonder Woman, Giffen + DeMattis on Justice League. I would have missed out on all these as they were being published if I hadn't followed JB.

Plus as a result I discovered Moore on Swamp Thing and then the Vertigo books. And subsequently other independents as Comico or Cerebus. So this was an important series for me.

I've re-read all 6 issues of the mini as they are featuring the comics on Bronze Age Babies at the moment. So now I can comment with the stories fresh in my mind.

Issue 4 (cover above) I think was the best overall.

NEXT: X-Men Masterworks by Roy Thomas and Neil Adams.